


The Walking Dead Ficlets - Fandom Stocking 2014

by Tarlan



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angst, Collection: Fandom Stocking 2014, M/M, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-08
Updated: 2015-01-08
Packaged: 2018-03-04 09:14:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3062273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlets created for Fandom Stocking 2014</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cruel World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SamuelJames](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamuelJames/gifts), [gaialux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaialux/gifts), [geeky_ramblings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/geeky_ramblings/gifts).



The prison should have been a refuge and for a time it had become a place filled with hope. A fortified town should have been even better, giving them a chance to regain some kind of normal life. Rick looked back on some of the other places that had or could have granted them respite - the CDC building, Herschel's Farm, the hospital, even Sanctuary. Each of those places had offered a temporary illusion of safety, offering hope for a better future, and each had served only to break their spirits a little more with the loss.

Now they were huddled together in an old gas station just a few miles outside of Atlanta and Rick felt as if they had been going round in circles for the past couple of years. He'd taken first watch, and his eyes followed Glenn as he took Maggie by the hand and led her to a small enclosed office, acknowledging them with a slight nod as Glenn closed the door behind them. He'd seen too much death to resent them taking this quiet moment to be together, especially after losing Beth. They had to grasp any opportunity to find a little comfort and block away the horrors of the real world if only for a short time, or risk going insane.

He knew better than most. He had come close to losing it after Lori's death, with the shock of too many losses building up too quickly. At least that insane bastard was dead but The Governor had taken so many of Rick's people to their graves with him.

The next few hours passed slowly but quietly, and Rick was tempted to let Glenn and Maggie sleep on in each other's arms rather than wake them to take their turn on guard. He glanced across at the silent figure on the opposite side of the room, catching the reflection of starlight off Daryl's eyes and sighed when Daryl moved towards the small office to rouse the others.

They crept out moments later and Maggie gave Rick a soft, reassuring smile as she moved to take Rick's place. He stood, stretching out some of the kinks and glanced back across at Daryl, bewildered when Daryl indicated towards the small office. Following quickly but silently, he waited until the door was closed behind them before whispering, "What's...?"

"They ain't the only ones that need..." His emotion-roughened voice trailed off.

Rick swallowed hard. It was easy to forget that losing Beth had hit Daryl just as hard, especially after him losing his brother not so long ago. He'd figured Daryl would go to Carol for comfort but it seemed the most natural thing in the world to wrap his arms around Daryl and draw him into a hard embrace. He wasn't expecting the press of lips against his throat or the powerful emotions that surged within him, making him turn his head so those lips would find his. They sank down onto the carpeted floor, kissing and fumbling. Years of suppressing sounds governed their actions despite the frantic need to feel skin on skin, and Rick wept silent tears against Daryl's hair as he came.

The hammering in his chest slowed as they relaxed against each other; the warmth of human contact chasing away the coldness that had gripped Rick's heart for too long. He'd never considered being with another guy before now but an apocalypse had a way of putting everything into perspective, proving how petty the old world had been. He felt at peace for the first time in months and knew he would snatch at this chance again, with Daryl.

"You okay?" he asked softly.

The face burrowing against his neck and the arms tightening around him gave all the answer he needed as they took a small measure of comfort in a cruel world.

END  
.


	2. Brothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daryl thought of Rick as a brother.

There was a time when Daryl thought of Rick as a brother, and Rick had called him that too. Brothers. Family. Something Daryl had never really known until a zombie apocalypse showed him just how fucked up his life had been before the world turned to hell on Earth. Rick was closer to a brother than Merle had ever been. They ate together, slept beside each other, watched each other's backs, and protected the others in their unique and ragged family as best they could - together. So maybe it wasn't such a stretch that one day Daryl would roll over on a cold night and end up tucked into Rick's warm body.

For the first time in weeks they were some place relatively safe. Judith and Carl were fast asleep, watched over by Carol, and Tyreese and Michonne were splitting the night watch with Glenn and Maggie, leaving them both a rare full night of much needed sleep.

Daryl hadn't expected to sleep so well and so deeply but the warmth of Rick's body and the arm slung over him in a carefree embrace had given his sleeping mind the comfort and security that he had craved for so long. He awoke in the gray light of the dawn, breathing in the slightly pungent scent of an unwashed body but it was a familiar smell, and still cleaner, sweeter than the stench of putrefying walkers.

During the night he had nudged his leg between Rick's, his body draped partially over the top of Rick. He could feel Rick's morning erection through the double layers of clothing, lying hard against his inner thigh, and knew his own was pressed against Rick's outer. Rick's grizzled beard pressed against his face from where his head lay on Rick's shoulder, tucked up under his chin, against his throat. He could feel the strong pulse of the artery against his cheek, throbbing slow and rhythmically, and though he should have drawn back, Daryl closed his eyes and let his world narrow down to the living, breathing man lying beneath him.

The quickening of that pulse forewarned that Rick was now also awake, slight tension stiffening his muscles, but he made no move. His pulse slowed until it was slow and steady once more, sleepily content despite the compromising position.

Minutes passed as the gray dawn gave way to shafts of sunlight finding holes in the moth-eaten drapes covering the window.

Judith's soft cry broke the spell bound in silence, and neither of them could pretend sleep any longer. Daryl found no uneasiness in Rick's blue eyes when they met his, only unsated hunger, melancholy acceptance, tinged with regret when Rick's fingers trailed over his skin as they pulled apart.

There was a time when Daryl thought of Rick as a brother, but now he realized they could be so much more.

END  
.


	3. Shell of Skin and Bone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daryl was not a stereotype.

Looking back on those first days, he had pegged Daryl for one of those hot-head rednecks like his brother Merle. Daryl was the stereotype that Deputy Rick Grimes would have hauled into the Sheriff's Office and thrown in the drunk tank overnight, or shook down for illegal drugs, guns or illicit moonshine. Instead, Daryl quickly proved he was nothing like his brother. He felt no need to be a leader, to be in control and bully people into doing what he wanted, and he had no need to follow. He was strong, independent, capable of holding his own in a fight and in surviving on his own.

Daryl was a loner and yet he chose to stay with them, accepting Rick as their leader but willing to argue if he thought Rick was making a bad decision. Rick had come to respect that, to respect him.

As the weeks became months Rick turned more often to Daryl for opinions, not realizing how this was adding fuel to the resentment building up inside of Shane. He should have seen it. He had usurped Shane's position in the group and had taken back the family that Shane had claimed in Rick's absence. He should have noticed the insane glint in Shane's eyes and dealt with him and Lori sooner. So Rick blamed himself rather than Carl when everything came to a head between him and Shane, attracting the unwanted attention of a Zombie herd that might have passed them by if not for the gunshot ringing through the night.

Daryl never passed judgment on him, though he had every right. They had lost good people at Herschel's farm, and he had silently accepted Rick's dictatorship through that long, cold winter as they moved from place to place, seeking shelter wherever they could find it. Lori's death had seen Rick's descent into temporary insanity but Daryl had stood by him, offering his quiet strength in support. He was the one who had stepped up after Lori died, finding formula to feed the starving newborn, helping Herschel keep the rest of them together while Rick mourned his losses and fought to regain his sanity.

Daryl was their silent sentinel, watching their backs, feeding them - even if it was just squirrel and the occasional rabbit or bird - and doling out small measures of comfort; a Cherokee Rose to mourn a loss, a quiet, strong shoulder to cry on.

Rick owed Daryl more than he could ever repay, so he could have easily convinced himself that the last fifteen minutes had been some sort of gratitude fuck on his part. Except that would be a lie and Daryl deserved far better than a pack of lies from him.

This apocalypse had taught Rick a lot about himself. He was fiercely protective of the people he cared about, able to dispassionately put down the undead and, if necessary, kill the living too. It had taught him that the human body was just a shell of skin and bone and that what truly mattered was the heart and mind inside that body, something he had always known but never acknowledged. It had taught him to accept the good times with an open heart to keep him going through the bad times.

It had shown him that love didn't come in a single package or wrapped in just one gender.

"You having regrets?"

Rick tightened his hold on Daryl, pressing a kiss into his hair. "About many things... but not about this."

END  
.


	4. Vulnerable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They protected each other's backs.

If anyone had ever told him he'd one day call a Deputy law officer not just a friend but a brother then Daryl would have laughed in disbelief and figured that person was either drunk or high on wacky weed. After all, he and Rick hadn't exactly started out on the right footing, what with him leaving Merle handcuffed on the roof of a building in zombie-filled Atlanta.

Trouble was, he knew Merle had likely deserved it. His brother was a bully and a loud-mouthed idiot, two things that had seen him given the choice between the army and prison before all hell broke loose on Earth. Neither would have straightened him out though, if anything, the military made him worse because they gave him a gun and taught him how to kill people legally.

Except that had come in handy once the dead started rising.

Daryl had stolen the crossbow from a hunting shack just after all went to hell and discovered he was a damned good shot. He certainly got a lot of practise in those early days and the bow had the added bonus of not attracting more of the zombies to his position. However, like a gun it didn't have an inexhaustible supply of projectiles, but at least he could reuse an arrow whereas once a gun was fired the bullet was spent.

Another gun shot echoed as Daryl plucked an arrow from where it was embedded in the gray matter of someone's grandma. He didn't bother to string it, stabbing it into the putrefied eye socket of another zombie.

Rick preferred his trusty, standard issue sidearm from his deputy days because there was more chance of finding a cache of bullets in that caliber than any other. He had the good sense not to use the gun unless there was no choice, and he had a good aim, picking his targets and getting the head shot most every time. At the moment he had no choice. Neither of them did as they stabbed and blasted and shot their way through the twenty or so zombies surrounding them.

Just a short distance away, Michonne was using that Japanese sword to slice or stab through heads, keeping her distance from the living so she had room to maneuver. Maggie was hacking her way through with a machete and hunting knife, with Glenn at her back, and Daryl could sense the others of their group close by.

His main focus was on Rick as always these days, taking out the zombie reaching for Rick from behind before it could sink its rotted teeth into him.

They made their way through, leaving behind the gory remains as they ran into the cover of the woods to regroup. A quick head count brought a sigh of relief as everyone had made it though without getting bit. Rick kept them moving for another hour at a fast pace, wanting to put some distance between them and the small herd of Walkers in case the gunshots had attracted more of them.

Eventually they reached a stream and in the distance Daryl could make out the shape of a house. He nudged Rick's shoulder and pointed, gaining a nod as Rick turned towards it.

The house wasn't empty but it took only a few minutes to check it out and deal with the zombie locked inside. Like most places, it had been cleaned out of supplies but there was always a chance the previous looters had missed something. In the end they found a few old cans of beans and peaches and some lumpy powder that made instant mashed potato. It wasn't much of a meal but better than nothing.

Carol and Michonne offered to take first watch so Daryl made his way upstairs, following Rick. No one batted an eyelid, not even after the first time they went together. Daryl figured they'd decided there was worse in this world than two guys finding relief with each other, especially when there was no chance of either of them falling pregnant.

"Glad you had my back out there," Rick murmured as he stretched out afterwards, nuzzling against Daryl's throat.

Daryl hadn't figured Rick had seen that Walker. He shivered at the memory and at the implications behind the unsaid words, that Rick had known he was in trouble but hadn't been in a position to save himself, that he had trusted in Daryl to be there for him. He tightened his hold on Rick and whispered against his hair.

"Always."

END  
.


End file.
